A journey with my boys- The Elf Barn as I call it. (7 Viewers)

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A few more pics. @SipLife also got to put the all important bling back on.

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The neighbors horses are majestic.

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I know where to look first if someone drops a fastener.
 
And if you don’t find it, we have a few more. 5 gallons of Toyota bolts. 🤣

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I would look in here first!
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I have been happy to see the Elf Boots throughout this thread!
 
This happened. @4Cruisers we might need ya to get this sorted out. Looks like your are in the know.

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I usually like to post what we do at the Elf Barn. This weekend was a little different but somehow connected to the though. My wife and I took @SipLife to University of Texas at Austin to get tooled up on college and mechanical engineering in particular. Some of the work at the Elf Barn is revealing some interests it appears. His younger brother @Cowboy45 also tagged along for an awareness tour. Life skills at the barn will hopefully help with their college applications. Both seem to be leaning toward mechanical engineering. It is was a fun trip. The campus is great. A challenging and rewarding environment for sure.

Check out FSAE (Formula Society of Automotive Engineering) with them. I am very involved with my school's team (University of Central Florida). It's a completely new realm of automotive experience that will change the way they work and view car and truck projects that's hard to get elsewhere. Also an immediate circle of similar minded friends. Highly recommended. Both UT Austin and Arlington campuses have improving teams.

And you can't get in classic college trouble if you're too busy building race cars ;)
 
Check out FSAE (Formula Society of Automotive Engineering) with them. I am very involved with my school's team (University of Central Florida). It's a completely new realm of automotive experience that will change the way they work and view car and truck projects that's hard to get elsewhere. Also an immediate circle of similar minded friends. Highly recommended. Both UT Austin and Arlington campuses have improving teams.

And you can't get in classic college trouble if you're too busy building race cars ;)

Thanks for the great advice Matt!!! I will definitely look into it! UT Austin is a strong consideration.
 
Thanks for the great advice Matt!!! I will definitely look into it! UT Austin is a strong consideration.

@cruisermatt we did some looking into FSAE. Really great concept. I think this will be a more focused college distraction. Less beer pong. I think we are all in.
 
Wow... this thread rocks. Love what you're doing with your boys and how the Elf Barn is facilitating so much more than idle tinkering. Good on you man. It's inspired me to think hard about how I work with my boys in the coming years.

This thread has just moved into my Mud Top 10 list... and now I have 4 other build threads I have to go read. =)
 
Wow... this thread rocks. Love what you're doing with your boys and how the Elf Barn is facilitating so much more than idle tinkering. Good on you man. It's inspired me to think hard about how I work with my boys in the coming years.

This thread has just moved into my Mud Top 10 list... and now I have 4 other build threads I have to go read. =)


@Honger thanks for the kind words. It’s a journey for sure. One step at a time for us. It has stretched us all in a good way. The ultimate goals I hope for are to:
  1. Get them to be handy with tools of all kinds and how to use them to solve challenges
  2. Create awareness of the why behind the how. Our actions need to be driven by purpose.
  3. Empower them to be fearless by eating the elephant one bite at a time.
  4. Teach them how to learn tenaciously by fostering high curiosity.
  5. Learning to appreciate the rewards of delayed gratification.
  6. Always having a “can do” attitude
I really have to try hard to be acutely aware to admit what I don’t know and work with my boys to find solutions together as a team. I am amazed at their ability to rise to the occasion when I fail (which is often 🤣).

Even harder for me is allowing them to do (succeed and fail) without interfering. I have an insatiable itch to jump in and take over (much like having a bad case of athletes foot you have to try and ignore every minute 😆).

Laughing at our mistakes but never forgetting them.

Being in the moment and respectful to each other.
 
@Cowboy45 and I hit the barn this weekend. @SipLife was focused on finals week. We leaked checked the Mustang windows again. Found a couple of minor leaks. We also got new window regulator for her passenger side and got the passenger door hardware/window adjustment done. Tomorrow we will add the weatherstrip to it.

We bought some cheap HF dollies to place Hercules on so we could move it around and work on it easier. Chinesium should we say. Sucked.

We went with home made in the USA. @Cowboy45 welded them up. His welding is getting better. 12”x16”. We used quarter inch 2x2 angle iron and 3” steel casters from Northern Tool. Each has a 1500 lb load capacity. Beefy. Hercules is “mobile for now”. Total cost for four was about $160. If we bought these online it would cost about $500. They work great.

Tomorrow we get back on Old Landy’s engine re-assembly.

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@Cowboy45 also worked on engine reassembly on his 2HT engine for Old Landy which he will document in greater detail in his Old Landy build thread. He got the crankshaft in, Alfin Pistons, all new Taio Japanese bearings for main crankshaft bearings, conrods, and piston wrist pins/bushings. We plasti gauged all conrod and main crankshaft bearings. All turned out great. New thrust washers also made sure side thrust was within spec. He blew out all galley holes of debris before he started, a good tip he got from @cruisermatt. He did a great job. He was Mr.T meticulous. By the FSM. I forget he is 14👀.

I can tell he really gets one with the engine. Nice to witness.

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I also took some time to clean up my nut and bolt sorting bins we got. I blew them out with compressed air, cleaned the rails free of grit, then hit them with some lube and did BLO treatment that @wngrog has used on patina items. They will work well. Reportedly these use to hold fasteners used to build ford model Ts.
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My wife @cowgirl45 has been playing around with a concept of documenting some of the boys work on YouTube. This is my young son Keaton’s beta trial voice over. Good first try at describing what he is doing.

The concept behind it is to get younger kids working with their hands and do meaningful things that empower them.


 
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^^^ Pretty cool you made that up!!! Love it!!

It’s all about the Mediclurin!🤣🤣

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We hit the barn this weekend. The little things on the pony take forever. @silplife and @Cowboy45 worked together as team to knock things out. Remaining weather strip, chrome. They also refreshed the dash area by painting it. Hell of a job masking all the chrome bits in the dash fascia inside the car. In the evening after dinner they both tag teamed on getting the instrument cluster redone with new chrome, dial glass, new bulbs. @SipLife will return the favor on Old Landy which is next. Made me smile to see them working together. Priceless.

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